in spite of the lateness of the hour, went to Mr. Toombs'
residence, awoke him, and asked for an authoritative denial of what they
considered a damaging charge. Mr. Toombs listened to the delegation, and
then declared with emphasis, not free from profanity, that it was so. "I
have responded to their calls just as I have those of other
denominations. You can tell the people that the distribution of my
money is none of their business."

This bold and prompt reply did not prevent his reelection to the
legislature the next day.

No man was more liberal in matters of religion and conscience than Mr.
Toombs. In 1851 he wrote his wife in reply to a letter informing him
that his daughter wanted to join the Methodist Church:

I am content if she desires, and you wish it. My opinions
about revivals, to which you refer, have been long formed
and much strengthened by my experience in the world, but I
am not at all desirous that they should be the rule of
anybody's conduct but my own. I have therefore endeavored
to stand upon the Protestant principle in matters of
conscience, of judging for myself and allowing others to do
the same. The Judge of the Earth will do right at the final
hearing.

On June 6, 1855, Mr. Toombs set sail from New York, in company with his
wife and daughter, and Mr. W. F. Alexander, his son-at-law. In ten days,
after a smooth trip, he landed in Liverpool, with just enough roughness
off the coast of Ireland to show old Neptune in his element. Mr. Toombs
was in the very prime of a vigorous life. He had accumulated a
competency at the law, was in fine physical condition, and had a mind
broad, sensitive, and retentive. He could stand any amount of
travel--this man who rode his circuits on his horse, and who endured the
wearing trips from Georgia to the national capital. He remarked at the
outset of his European trip that he had more money than time, so he
secured special conveyances at every available place, and pushed his
journey to all points of interest. From London he went to Paris, Lyons,
Marseilles, thence to the Mediterranean, where he passed the Fourth of
July plowing his way to Naples, sleeping on deck to escape the stuffy
stateroom of the little steamer, and catching all the cinders from the
smokestack. Embarking at Naples, he went to Rome, where he was entranced
to see the historic spots of the Eternal City. Rome had for him more
charms than Par